CIRO Guidance Expands Decision-Making Supports for OEO Dealers

CIRO News Releases

Published March 12th, 2026

Detected March 12th, 2026

Summary

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has published new guidance allowing Order Execution Only (OEO) dealers to expand decision-making supports offered to clients. This aims to empower DIY investors with better educational resources and tools while maintaining investor protection.

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What changed

CIRO has issued new guidance that expands the decision-making supports Order Execution Only (OEO) dealers can offer to clients. This update, effective March 12, 2026, allows dealers to provide more educational resources, notifications, and alerts without violating the prohibition on making recommendations, provided these supports do not endorse specific investment decisions and include adequate safeguards. The guidance adopts a principle-based approach, listing examples of supports such as alerts, self-help tools, and educational information, and safeguards like clear disclosures, disclaimers, and conflict of interest management.

This change is significant for OEO dealers and DIY investors. Dealers now have more flexibility to innovate and provide valuable information to clients, addressing concerns that previous limitations prevented important information from reaching investors who increasingly rely on unregulated sources. Compliance officers at OEO firms should review the new guidance to understand the expanded scope of permissible client communications and implement the recommended safeguards to ensure continued investor protection and compliance with CIRO's updated framework.

What to do next

Review CIRO's new guidance on OEO dealer decision-making supports.
Update internal policies and procedures to incorporate expanded decision-making support offerings.
Ensure all new decision-making supports provided to clients include the recommended safeguards (e.g., clear disclosures, disclaimers).

Source document (simplified)

CIRO Publishes New Guidance for Order Execution Only Dealers

March 12, 2026

Type: Media Release > General

Contact

Ariel Visconti Senior Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Specialist 416-526-8240 Email
Greater access to educational resources from OEO dealers will empower DIY investors to make confident, informed investment decisions and enhance investor protection

March 12, 2026 (Toronto, Ontario) – The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has published new guidance that will allow Order Execution Only (OEO) dealers to expand the range of decision-making supports they can offer to clients. The new guidance gives dealers the flexibility to innovate and better serve clients’ needs and empowers do-it-yourself (DIY) investors to make independent, well-informed investment decisions, while ensuring the necessary safeguards are in place to maintain and enhance investor protection.

Public consultations on the previous guidance revealed a growing industry consensus that the limitations on decision-making supports being offered by OEO firms were preventing important information and warnings from reaching DIY investors, who are increasingly turning to unregulated sources such as online forums, social media and finfluencers to help them make important investment decisions. As part of its commitment to enabling greater access to regulated advice, CIRO identified updating the previous guidance on OEO account services as a priority for 2026.

“The new OEO guidance is a major step forward for both the industry and investors,” said Alexandra Williams, Senior Vice-President, Strategy, Innovation, and Stakeholder Protection at CIRO. “It enables dealer members to provide more decision‑making supports, including timely, relevant educational resources, notifications, and alerts tailored to client needs. For investors, it means access to high‑quality tools from reputable, regulated sources to ultimately enhance their protection.”

The new guidance broadens the range of decision-making supports that OEO dealers can offer to clients without violating the rule that prohibits them from making recommendations. While the previous guidance restricts OEO dealers from providing communications that could “reasonably be expected to influence” investors, the new guidance clarifies that OEO dealers are allowed to provide informative resources and decision-making supports to clients as long as they do not endorse a specific investment decision and are provided with adequate safeguards.

The new guidance adopts a principle-based approach, outlining a non-exhaustive set of decision-making supports that OEO dealers can provide, along with a non-exhaustive list of corresponding safeguards they should consider.

Decision-making supports can include:

Alerts and notifications;
Self-help tools;
Educational information.
Key safeguards include:
Providing clear disclosures and disclaimers;
Using clear descriptors, transparent and objective criteria;
Addressing or avoiding material conflicts of interest; and
Performing regular monitoring and updates.
The new OEO guidance is posted on CIRO’s website.

Media contact:

Ariel Visconti
Senior Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Specialist
416-526-8240
[email protected]

About CIRO

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) is the pan-Canadian self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers, mutual fund dealers and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces. CIRO is committed to the protection of investors, providing efficient and consistent regulation, and building Canadians’ trust in financial regulation and the people managing their investments. For more information, visit www.ciro.ca.

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March 12, 2026

Type: Media Release > General